Description
A dangerous sexual predator has been jailed for raping five women - spiking the drinks of some of his victims before carrying out the attacks.
Hotel chef Tom Wade-Allison, 25, committed a campaign of sexual violence, stupefying women by adding an unknown substance to their drinks before assaulting them.
He was found guilty at Exeter Crown Court last month of 14 offences against five young woman aged between 17 and 20.
They recalled feeling they had lost control of their bodies during the assaults. They would drift in and out of consciousness, waking to the sight of Wade-Allison having sex with them, unable to fight him off.
Some recalled being in a daze, telling him to stop but he ignored their pleas.
One said she felt like she was "trapped in my own body".
He was described in court as a man with no apparent understanding of the seriousness of his crimes and an ongoing danger to women.
Judge Timothy Rose told Wade-Allison: "It was a campaign of rape and other offences enacted over a 20 month period of offending against victims in similar circumstances.
"These were circumstances you either developed yourself or manipulated to obtain the outcome in question or at least repeatedly take advantage of."
Wade-Allison, of Martock, was jailed for 24 years.
The assaults came to light after one of the victims told police he had raped her while she was unable to consent. Her memory of the incident was vague because Wade-Allison had spiked her drink, she thought. Her report caused other victims to come forward and reveal similar experiences.
Judge Rose said it was difficult to be sure how many of the victims had been drugged before being raped. He said he could be certain that two of them had been and a third almost certainly.
He said: "You plied their drinks with a substance, whatever it may have been, intending to affect their self-control as a way of facilitating your sexual acts upon them, utterly against their will and against their knowledge."
The defendant's crimes had features in common, said the judge, such as the victims having had a lot to drink and it being clear they did not consent, though not all of the victims were drugged.
Most of the crimes took place in Somerset but he also offended in Honiton.
Each of the victims provided a personal impact statement to the court outlining the devastating effect on their lives.
One said Wade-Allison was an 'absolute parasite in my life'.
"My life will never be the same again because of him. My life seems permanently dark and troubled," she said, coming to court to testify against him had forced her to dig up memories she had tried to bury.
Judge Rose said Wade-Allison appeared to believe he would not be caught.
"You were not deterred at any stage. You were emboldened by the apparent conclusion you were just getting away with it."
He added: "On any assessment of the evidence and circumstances I'm given to wonder whether you had some kind of deficiency of personal understanding of the nature and extent and seriousness of the crimes you were committing.
"You have expressed no remorse, acceptance, no insight into the offences you committed. On all the evidence I've heard, you remain a danger to women. There is a profound misogynistic element to your offending and predatory sexual attention.
"There is no thought or feeling towards the victims. No concern to the pain, physical and psychological of the offending. You present a significant risk of causing significant harm."
Wade-Allison denied nine charges of rape, four sexual assaults, and one attempted rape.
Mr Nigel Wraith, in mitigation, said he still did not accept his guilt. He was 20 and 21 at the time of the offending and has no previous convictions.
"He will no doubt find the lengthy sentence a very difficult experience," said Mr Wraith.
Wade-Allison will serve two-thirds of his 24-year sentence in jail. He will serve the remaining eight on license and subject to recall should he breach the conditions.
At the conclusion of the sentencing, Judge Rose paid tribute to the victims for coming forward.
He said: "I want to take a minute to commend all of the victims who came forward for their bravery, the way they were prepared to report the offences in question and enable this trial and result to be reached.
"It is commonly known a number of victims of sexual offences do not report for various and understandable reasons and it takes a great deal of bravery, commitment and suffering to do so.
"So I am very grateful to all who came forward to enable this to take place and I commended the police officer in the case."